Exciting times! Exactly a month ago, July 20, I submitted a reprint, “The Borrowed Man,” originally published in THE GIRL AT THE END OF THE WORLD, BOOK 1 (Fox Spirit Books, 2014 — cf. August 8 2014, et al.), to Digital Fiction Publishing for its upcoming DIGITAL HORROR FICTION anthology. And so the reply received today from Editor/Publisher Michael Wills: Thank you for sending us “The Borrowed Man”. We think it is a great fit and would like to publish it. We will be in touch shortly with a formal contract and details for your review. And then also today, there came not just one, but two contracts to sign, the second for DIGITAL SCIENCE FICTION to republish “The Needle-Heat Gun,” originally in NIGHT LIGHTS (Geminid Press, 2016 — see July 29 this year, et al.), both of which went back this afternoon. “The Borrowed Man,” I might also add, is set in the far-future universe which includes TOMBS: A CHRONICLE OF LATTER-DAY TIMES OF EARTH, although the story is not in the book itself. But should you read it and like it, and have a yen to explore its world further, you can find more by clicking TOMBS’s picture at the top of the center column.

Then for yet more about TOMBS, THE TEARS OF ISIS, and writing in general, word came today that a new interview of me has been scheduled for Monday, September 4, by British blogger/reviewer Drew Weldon for his THE TATTOOED BOOK GEEK. That’s the Labor Day holiday here in the States — plenty of time to read and enjoy it. More on which when the time comes will be here.

Thus was the call: Welcome to Digital Science Fiction. We are excited to announce our first open call for reprint short stories in the science fiction genre. These stories will be published as stand-alone short stories and as part of an anthology of ten short stories under the Digital Science Fiction imprint, by the publisher, Digital Fiction Publishing Corp. The announcement went on to specify that stories needed to be from 3500 to 7500 words long, “have appeared in professional or semi-professional books, magazines, collections, or anthologies,” and not be available for free on the internet. And for which one would be paid, well, a bit, but reprints are reprints and money is money. And so, why not?

As it happened, in fact, I had a 7000ish-word story published in the “Space Opera” section of NIGHT LIGHTS by Geminid Press in 2016 (see April 1 2016, et al.), a bit tongue-in-cheekish, having fun with the genre, you know, and ready to trot. And so why not indeed? Off it went just nine days ago and today the word came back from Michael Wills of Digital Fiction: Thank you for sending us ‘The Needle-Heat Gun’. We think it is a great fit and would like to publish it. We will be in touch shortly with a formal contract and details for your review.

Dragons — bad-ass dragons. Dragons that destroy things and eat people, and the people/robots/aliens/time lords that fight them or out-smart them — or get eaten by them. No story book dragons that live in forests helping orphans or peddling psychedelics. My dragons eat orphans for breakfast. Timeline and setting is wide open. Your dragons aren’t necessarily getting stabbed by swords — but swords are welcome too. I want dragons — awe inspiring fear provoking monsters. They can be mechanical, mystical, steam-powered, alien, aquatic, from another dimension, or from outer space — but they must be terrifying beasts of destruction. Here be dragons.

Now who could resist that? Moreover, while the money offered by publisher Digital Fiction may not have been much (though there may be a royalty involved as well), HIC SUNT DRACONES is to be a reprints only anthology and, as it happened. . . . Well, as I told them with my submission, [h]ere is the bad-ass dragon tale of “The Bala Worm,” originally published in BLACK DRAGON, WHITE DRAGON (Ricasso Press, 2008), with reprint rights in my possession. It also appears in my collection THE TEARS OF ISIS (Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing, 2013).

It had the makings of a marriage arranged in . . . well, wherever it is that dragons arrange such things. And so, this afternoon, the word came back from Editor Michael Wills: Thank you for sending us “The Bala Worm”. We think it is a great fit and would like to publish it.

And then one more detail for fellow authors who might have a dragon or two in the closet, the guidelines say the anthology may be open until the end of the month, May 31, for details on which one may press here. But best hurry because they’ll only want thirty stories or so for about 150,000 words total and some of them (mine included) may be long.

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About Me

Be on the watch for my newest book, TOMBS: A CHRONICLE OF LATTER-DAY TIMES OF EARTH, a novel-in-stories just released from Elder Signs Press in June 2017. I am an Indiana based short story writer and poet with three primarily prose collections, STRANGE MISTRESSES: TALES OF WONDER AND ROMANCE and DARKER LOVES: TALES OF MYSTERY AND REGRET published by Dark Regions Press and the Bram Stoker Award(R) nominated THE TEARS OF ISIS from Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing, and an illustrated all-poetry collection, VAMPS (A RETROSPECTIVE), from Sam’s Dot Publishing/ White Cat Publications. I also have a novelette, THE GARDEN (currently out of print) from Damnation Books; electronic chapbooks VANITAS and I’M DREAMING OF A . . . and novelette PEDS from Untreed Reads Publishing; POLUDNITSA in Chamberton Publishing’s “Chimera” short fantasy series; and more than five hundred individual appearances in magazines and anthologies in the US, Canada, Britain, France, Australia, Holland, and Brazil, ranging from ABORIGINAL SCIENCE FICTION and ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE to XENOPHILIA and THE YELLOW BAT REVIEW. In the past I have worked a number of jobs including technical writer, city editor on a regional magazine, full time non-fiction freelancer, and semi-professional musician, and now reside in southern Indiana with current cat, Triana, named for the goth-styled daughter of Dr. Orpheus in the VENTURE BROS. Cartoon Channel series. As a writer, I count as influences (among others) Edgar Allan Poe, Ray Bradbury, Allen Ginsberg, and Bertolt Brecht.